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DPP blasts Ma’s
‘non-state’ comment
NON-EXISTENT: Another opposition party said that
Ma Ying-jeou has disqualified himself as head of state because he does not
recognize Taiwanese sovereignty
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The pan-green camp yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of undermining
the nation’s sovereignty by describing cross-strait ties as “non-state-to-state”
relations and staying silent on China’s controversial new passports.
On Wednesday, China’s Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS)
dismissed Taiwan’s protest over the inclusion of several tourists attractions in
Taiwan on new Chinese passports as “invalid” and said that only
“pro-independence activists” had made a “fuss” over the matter.
In his speech that same day, Ma said cross-strait relations are
“non-state-to-state” relations, but a special relationship because while the two
sides do not recognize each other’s sovereignty, neither do they deny each
other’s existence.
The DPP legislative caucus said the president had belittled Taiwanese
sovereignty and his inaction over China’s provocative move implied that Taiwan
is part of China.
While Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said on Thursday that
Beijing’s response on the passport issue misrepresented the situation and it
should pay greater attention to the indignation it has aroused in Taiwan, that
was mere rhetoric and the Ma administration has yet to take substantial action,
DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.
The DPP caucus also criticized Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for
yesterday blocking a DPP proposal urging the president to call an international
press conference on the passport issue for the third time this month.
A proposal urging Beijing to release imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu
Xiaobo (劉曉波) and his wife, who is under house arrest, was also blocked, Pan
added.
If China failed to respond to Taiwan’s call positively, Pan said the Taiwanese
government should suspend all cross-strait negotiations as retaliation.
Ma likes to invent terms of “creative ambiguity,” such as “non-state-to-state”
relations and the “institutionalization of cross-strait reconciliation,” to deal
with cross-strait relations, DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
“However, the approach is risky because it has blurred actual relations between
Taiwan and China — which are both independently governed — and could further
jeopardize Taiwan’s diplomatic relations,” Lee said, citing recent moves by
several Central American diplomatic allies, including Honduras, to establish
economic offices in China as an example.
The DPP’s Department of China Affairs also issued a press releasing demanding
that the president call an international press conference to condemn China’s
moves and to present concrete measures to stop China’s encroachment on Taiwan’s
sovereignty.
Meanwhile, at a press conference held on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the
Presidential Office yesterday, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said Ma no
longer qualifies as a head of state with his “special relationship” comments.
“A president who does not recognize the sovereignty of his own country does not
qualify as a head of state,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.
Ma has flip-flopped on the issue, Huang said, adding that if Taiwan were not a
state, Ma’s advocacy of “one China with different interpretations” does not make
sense.
Speaking about Ma’s intention to pursue a cross-strait peace agreement, Huang
said what happened in Tibet in the 1950s was a perfect example of how Beijing
hides its political agenda to achieve its aims.
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